Archives for March 2017

About a year and a half ago, I had the pleasure of receiving some fantastic photos and comments from Italian bear artist Antonella Dulio. Like Madonna and Cher, the bear maker prefers to go by her first name: Antonella. The solo-named artist began to create her own ursine pals around late 2012 or early 2013. She found that she had a talent for this craftsmanship and decided to dub her newfound business Cicciorsi.

The winners of the 2017 Teddy Bear of the Year (TOBY) Industry’s Choice Awards were announced Jan. 7 at the Crossroads Doll & Teddy Bear Show in San Diego. Chosen from approximately 200 entries, the winners now go on to become the nominees for this year’s TOBY Public’s Choice Awards, voted on by Teddy Bear & Friends readers.

Check out this year’s nominees — the Industry’s Choice winners. Then you can go to the TOBY online ballot to vote for your favorite entry in each category, as well enter your choice for Artist of the Year, chosen from the artists whose entries won Industry’s Choice Awards in this year’s competition. The deadline to cast your vote is June 30, 2017.

When retailers head to Javits Center for Toy Fair, they most likely don’t have much time to concentrate on anything but placing bulk orders and figuring out what merchandise will fly off their shelves. (Well, if not fly, then at least leave speedily!) I annually vow that I will cover the enormous square acreage of the convention hall, but I always fail to meet that unrealistic goal. Perhaps when pigs fly, I’ll be able to say I saw and photographed it all!